Prince Predicts His Own Bright Future in ‘Baby, I’m a Star': 365 Prince Songs in a Year

To celebrate the incredibly prolific, influential and diverse body of work left behind by Prince, we will be exploring a different song of his each day for an entire year with the series 365 Prince Songs in a Year.

This is perhaps the last moment before the gumption-filled overachiever of Prince's youth transformed into someone who questioned every element of fame.

His next album would be a bold move against expectations. Not long after that, he'd dissolve the Revolution, another unexpected move considering their shared role in his new celebrity. Within a few years, he wouldn't even want to be called Prince anymore. But all of that was very far away in the period leading up to the career-making Purple Rain album and film – and you hear it in every breathless moment of "Baby, I'm a Star."

There was really no denying where Prince was headed, even if he risked of sounding like a braggart: Fame, at this point, was his blatantly stated goal. "Might not know it now ... but baby, I'm a star," Prince sang. "I don't want to stop, 'til I reach the top."

There's a reason he sounded so hungry. "Baby I'm a Star" actually dates back to well before the sessions for Purple Rain. It grew out of a solo piano version Prince cut at his home studio on Kiowa Trail in Chanhassen, Minn., while working on a remix for "Let's Work" from 1981's Controversy. It wasn't complete, however, until the Revolution had added their unique pop/funk-orchestra stamp to the proceedings. The album version was recorded live on Aug. 3, 1983 at First Avenue in Minnesota, during a show that also provided "I Would Die 4 U" and the title song for the finished Purple Rain track listing.

It's notable, too, that this show served as Wendy Melvoin's debut. "Baby I'm a Star," as much as it punctures the messianic bubble of the preceding "I Would Die 4 U," also showcases the drum-tight ensemble playing that made Prince's time with the Revolution so extraordinary. Later, he added overdubs, including backwards, very prescient dialogue to "Baby I'm a Star" that reportedly said "So, like, f--- them, man! What do they know?"

In the end, of course, "Baby I'm a Star" became a self-fulfilling prophesy for Prince – beginning with its placement as the closing song in Purple Rain, a moment that marked the start of his widest possible renown.

Prince and the Revolution then performed "Baby, I'm a Star" at the next year's Grammy Awards, where they picked up statues for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal, and for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. In a sign of things to come, however, Prince finished the performance with many of those in the audience joining him onstage, then unexpectedly vanished down the stairs used for award winners.